"Don't leave me"-- his lips endeavouring not to smile--"in high dudgeon.

It's always seemed such an awful thing to be left in--like boiling oil." Suddenly she yielded to the man's whimsical charm and sank down again into her chair.
"That's better." He smiled and seated himself beside her.

"I couldn't help it, you know," he said quaintly.

"It was you yourself who told me." "Told you what ?" "That the world hadn't been quite kind." Nan felt a sudden reckless instinct to tempt fate.

There was already a breach in her privacy; for this one evening she did not care if the wall were wholly battered down.
"Tell me," she queried with averted head, "how--how much did you understand ?" Mallory scrutinised her reflectively.
"You really wish it ?" "Yes, really." He was silent a moment.